11x11 Queens Puzzle #289
Difficulty: medium. Place 11 queens on this 11x11 board so that no two share a row, column or color region and none touch — including diagonally. This puzzle has exactly one solution, and it has been verified solvable by deduction alone: the complete 19-step reasoning is written out below.
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Step-by-step solution for puzzle #289
What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #289, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 19 deductions — 11 queen placements and 8 elimination steps that narrow the board between them. Each step names the rule that forces it, so nothing below is a guess, and the hardest idea required is the pairing argument on rows.
Techniques this board needs: last square in a region, region confined to one line, region shadow, line confined to one region, pairing argument on rows, last square in a column, last square in a row.
Show the full walkthrough (11 steps) — contains the solution
Step 1. Only row 6, column 2 is still open in red, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 6, column 2, the rest of the red region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.
Step 2. All of the indigo region's remaining squares (3 open squares) lie in row 1. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere on that row, which means no other colour may use it: 8 squares come off.
Step 3. Only row 2, column 10 is still open in amber, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. Everything else in row 2, in column 10, in amber and in the ring around that square is now dead.
Step 4. Wherever khaki ends up among its 2 squares, the same squares fall within reach of it — 2 squares in total, impossible regardless of how the colour resolves.
The board after step 4 — 2 of 11 queens placed. Step 5. Orange is down to 4 candidates in rows 8–10, columns 3 and 4, and they overlap enough to cover 1 square elsewhere. Cross those out without deciding anything about orange itself.
Step 6. All of the sea green region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in column 11. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere in that column, which means no other colour may use it: 5 squares come off.
Step 7. Column 9 has only pale yellow squares left (7 open squares). The column needs a queen and only pale yellow can provide one, which pins that colour to this column and kills its squares elsewhere: 17 squares.
The board after step 7 — 2 of 11 queens placed. Step 8. Every open square left in column 8 (2 open squares) belongs to the mint region. Since that column must contain a queen, mint is the colour that supplies it — so mint squares anywhere else on the board are out, 3 squares in all.
Step 9. Mint cannot leave column 8 — every one of its open squares (2 open squares) sits there. That column belongs to mint, so every square in it owned by another colour is dead: 1 square in all.
Step 10. Here is the pairing argument. The khaki, orange, and sea green regions have no open squares outside rows 8–10 — 3 colours confined to 3 rows. Between them they must take one row each, in some order, so every other colour is shut out of all of them: 8 squares come off in one stroke.
Step 11. From here the board cascades. Keep alternating the region sweep and the line sweep and 9 queens fall out in order without any new idea being needed: column 7 is down to one square, putting a queen on row 1, column 7; column 6 is down to one square, putting a queen on row 3, column 6; mint has one square left, so its queen takes row 4, column 8; row 5 is down to one square, putting a queen on row 5, column 4; orange has one square left, so its queen takes row 9, column 3; khaki has one square left, so its queen takes row 8, column 1; sea green has one square left, so its queen takes row 10, column 11; teal has one square left, so its queen takes row 11, column 5; pale yellow has one square left, so its queen takes row 7, column 9. After each one, clear that row, that column, the rest of the colour and the ring of neighbours before looking for the next. The last of them seats the queen on row 7, column 9.
The board after step 11 — 11 of 11 queens placed.
That completes the board: 11 queens seated, one in every row, one in every column and one in every colour, with no two of them touching. Notice that nothing in the sequence above required a guess — each placement followed from an elimination already on the grid, which is what “single solution, solvable by logic” actually means in practice.
About 11x11 Queens puzzle #289
Puzzle #289 is one of the medium-rated boards in the 11x11 set. Eleven colors divide its 121 squares, and you win by placing eleven queens so that each row, each column and each color holds exactly one, with no two queens adjacent in any direction.
Like every board on this site, #289 has been verified to have exactly one valid solution, and that solution is reachable by deduction alone. You never have to guess and then unwind; every queen can be justified by something already visible on the grid. What changes from puzzle to puzzle is where the first certainty appears and how long the chain of reasoning runs before the next one — and that is entirely a product of how these particular colors are shaped.
How the colors divide this board
From smallest to largest, the regions on puzzle #289 are: red (1 square), indigo (3 squares), amber (3 squares), sea green (4 squares), orange (6 squares), khaki (8 squares), teal (12 squares), slate (13 squares), blue (16 squares), mint (21 squares), pale yellow (34 squares). An even split would hand every color 11 squares, so the red region is running 10 squares under that average while the pale yellow region is the roomiest area on the grid with 34 squares.
Why does the split matter? Because a region's square count has no bearing on how many queens it gets — the answer is always one. So red, with 1 square, is under far more pressure than pale yellow with 34. A 33-square gap like this one rewards players who start where the choices are fewest.
Shape matters as much as size. The indigo region is the most compact color here, filling 100% of the 1×3 box that encloses it, while teal is the most scattered at 43% of its 4×7 box. Compact regions are easy to eliminate around; straggling ones reach into more rows and columns and tend to stay unresolved until late.
Region by region
Here is the full footprint of every color on puzzle #289, smallest first. Reading these spans before you place anything is the quickest way to see which parts of the grid are genuinely contested.
Red covers 1 square, spanning 1 row and 1 column (rows 6–6, columns 2–2). It never leaves row 6, so its queen is locked to that row.
Indigo occupies 3 squares within rows 1–1, columns 5–7. It never leaves row 1, so its queen is locked to that row.
Amber: 3 squares across rows 1–2, columns 10–11.
Sea green covers 4 squares, spanning 2 rows and 2 columns (rows 9–10, columns 10–11).
Orange occupies 6 squares within rows 7–10, columns 3–4.
Khaki: 8 squares across rows 6–10, columns 1–3.
Teal covers 12 squares, spanning 4 rows and 7 columns (rows 8–11, columns 1–7).
Slate occupies 13 squares within rows 1–7, columns 1–4.
Blue: 16 squares across rows 1–6, columns 2–6.
Mint covers 21 squares, spanning 7 rows and 6 columns (rows 1–7, columns 6–11).
Pale yellow occupies 34 squares within rows 4–11, columns 5–11.
Where to start on this board
Red is the natural opening on #289: it is the smallest region on the grid at 1 square, boxed into rows 6–6 and columns 2–2. Since one of those squares must hold a queen, that block of 1 row and 1 column is the most contested part of the board.
Because red never leaves row 6, its queen must be in that row — and that instantly settles row 6 for everyone else. Sweep along it and X out every square that is not red. Then look at which colors just lost ground: on a grid this size that one observation usually forces a second region within a move or two.
Work outward to the other flat regions next. Indigo, amber and sea green are no more than two rows tall, so their queens are confined to a narrow band. When two flat regions overlap the same pair of rows, those rows are spoken for and every other color is locked out of both — the single most productive pattern in the game, and it is live on this board.
The tightest lines on puzzle #289
A quick way to find the next move is to count how many different colors touch each line. On this board, row 11 is the narrowest, touched by only 2 colors. Columns 8 and 9 are the tightest columns, with 2 colors.
The fewer colors a line touches, the sooner it surrenders its queen. A row meeting just 2 colors has to be claimed by one of them, which pushes every remaining region into the other 10 rows. Row 6, meeting 6 colors, is the opposite case — the busiest line on #289 and the last one you should expect to crack.
Working through the middle game
Once two or three queens are down, the board changes character. Each queen removes an entire row, an entire column and the ring of up to eight squares around it, so the grid shrinks faster than most people expect. The habit that pays here is marking rather than remembering: after every placement, cross out the full row, the full column and all eight neighbours before hunting for the next move.
The whole middle game reduces to two sweeps. Sweep the eleven colors looking for one with a single square left; sweep the eleven rows and eleven columns looking for the same. Each sweep feeds the next, and switching between them deliberately — rather than drifting — is what separates a fast 11x11 solve from a stalled one.
A placement without a reason is a guess. Because this board has exactly one solution, a guess that happens to be wrong will not announce itself for several moves — and unwinding it is slower than simply finishing the eliminations first.
Why puzzle #289 is rated medium
The rating reflects how much the board concedes up front. Puzzle #289 has three regions confined to a single row or column, its smallest color holds 1 square, its tightest row meets just 2 colors, and the gap between its largest and smallest regions is 33 squares. Flat, lopsided boards open quickly; even, sprawling ones make you earn the first placement.
The scale has nothing to do with maths or luck — every puzzle here is solvable by deduction and has exactly one answer. It measures reasoning depth: how many eliminations must stack up before a placement becomes provable. That depth is what separates a medium board from the rest.
If #289 feels harder than its rating suggests, the usual culprit is incomplete marking rather than a difficult deduction. Check that every queen already on the grid has its full cross of eliminations recorded — including the diagonal neighbours, which are by far the easiest to miss. More stalled solves come from one forgotten diagonal X than from any genuinely deep chain of logic.
Techniques that work well at 11x11
At 11x11 you are managing 121 squares, and holding the whole board in your head will not work. Split it into quadrants and solve locally. Most useful deductions on a grid this large are regional — a color pinched between two placed queens, or a band of rows that two regions must share. Trust the marks on the board over your memory.
Learn the pairing argument and you will use it on every board, this one included. If two colors can only sit inside the same two rows, between them they consume both rows and every other color is shut out. It generalises to any matching count — three colors across three rows, four across four. On #289, start hunting for it near row 11.
Here is a shape check that gives nothing away: when #289 is solved, 4 queens sit on the outer edge of the grid and 7 sit inside it, and no queen lands in a corner. A work-in-progress board that clusters its queens in one quadrant while leaving others bare is usually carrying a mistake.
How to play Queens
- The board is an N×N grid divided into N colored regions.
- Place exactly one queen (♛) in each row, each column, and each colored region.
- No two queens may touch each other — not horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
- Tap once to mark a square with an X (where a queen can't go), tap again to place a queen, and once more to clear it.
- There is always exactly one valid solution. Use logic, never guessing, to find it.
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Questions about this puzzle
How hard is 11x11 Queens puzzle #289?
Puzzle #289 is rated medium. Its smallest color region holds 1 square, its tightest row is touched by 2 colors, and three of its regions are confined to a single row or column, which gives you a forced move early.
Does 11x11 puzzle #289 have only one solution?
Yes. Every puzzle in the 11x11 collection, including #289, has been verified to have exactly one valid arrangement of eleven queens, and it can always be reached by logic alone — no guessing or backtracking needed.
Where should I place my first queen on puzzle #289?
Start with the red region — the most constrained color on this board, with 1 square spanning rows 6–6 and columns 2–2. Narrowing the smallest region first removes the most squares elsewhere on the grid.